Marionette
by Split Illusion
Summary: Filippa, call her Pip, has always had the strings in her life being pulled by somebody else –especially her aunt. She's tired of having no control. Moving to the small town of Sweet Amoris, she's hoping for a change.


**Disclaimer:** We don't own anything.

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**Marionette**

Filippa, call her Pip, has always had the strings in her life being pulled by somebody else –especially her aunt. She's tired of having no control.

Moving to the small town of Sweet Amoris, she's hoping for a change.

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**Prologue**

Carefully folding up her favorite shirt, Pip placed it in a large brown cardboard box labeled 'clothes' in big bold, black letters. It was weird to think that she was moving after having lived in the same place for so many years. Although, Pip mused to herself as she looked at the purple walls of her going-to-be old room, it's not like this place was ever really home.

Shaking away her thoughts and turning at the sound of a knock on her doorframe, Pip watched her Aunt Isabelle walk in, eyes drifting around the room as she took in the sight of all the boxes littering the floor.

"Hi Sweetie," her aunt said after a moment, "how's the packing going?"

"It's going, I suppose," Pip replied with a shrug of her shoulders, turning back to her packing and placing another shirt into the box on her bed. An awkward silence descended onto the pair as Pip continued folding and packing up her clothes while her aunt watched on. It was usually like this whenever her aunt had something to tell her.

"So, Pip," her aunt began hesitantly as she walked passed a few boxes on the floor to take a seat on the edge of Pip's bed. "Now that Charlie and I are married…" she trailed off, floundering for words to say and fiddling with the sheets on Pip's bed nervously. Putting her final shirt in the box and closing it up, Pip automatically moved onto the next box, not even sending so much as a glance her aunt's way.

"You don't want me to live in the new house with you and Charlie, right?" she finished for her aunt. Although phrased as a question, both Pip and her aunt knew it was really a statement. The idea didn't overly shock Pip. Ever since she'd been informed that her aunt and Charlie were engaged and that they'd be moving after the wedding she'd suspected that something like this would happen.

…Though, if she was being completely honest with herself, she had almost expected this as soon as she had hit high school. Her aunt had never really hidden that fact that Pip wasn't quite the top priority in her life. From a young age, Pip had been placed in dance classes to keep her out of the house so her aunt wouldn't have to, for lack of a better word, babysit her.

"It's not that we don't want you, Sweetie," her aunt protested weakly, her voice meek. "We just… we want a fresh start, ya know?" She glanced around the room hopelessly, as if trying to find a more concrete reason for not wanting her niece, though both she and Pip knew that there wasn't one. They'd been thrown together by circumstances outside of their control. Even though they were related, there was little to no emotional connection between the two of them.

"Yeah," Pip replied blandly as she placed knickknacks from around her room into a small box sitting at the head of her bed next to her pillow, mechanically wrapping the more fragile pieces in bubble wrap before placing them inside, "You and Charlie are ready to start a brand new life together, and maybe even start a family of your own. I just don't fit into that picture."

"Oh Pip," her aunt exclaimed softly, "I'm glad you understand, but you shouldn't be so negative about it. You do fit into the picture-"

"Just not the house," Pip finished decisively. Her aunt floundered, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly. Pip sighed heavily after a moment of continued silence from her aunt and turned away from her packing, sitting gingerly on the bed.

"Auntie…" Pip caught the women's eyes and managed to give a small, barely there smile, "You and Charlie deserve to have some alone time together, without a teenager in the house. I get it. I truly do," she reassured, keeping her voice gentle. Isabelle stared at her for a long moment, searching her eyes and face, before a full grin stretched her lips.

"Oh, Filippa!" she exclaimed, jumping off the bed and pulling Pip up as well, enveloping her in a hug, "I'm so proud of the woman you've become! So understanding! So grown up!"

Pip stayed silent and didn't bother to return her aunt's hug, her attention elsewhere. Straight across the room hanging on her wall was a mirror that her aunt had placed there years and years ago, and Pip couldn't help but find the picture in the mirror somewhat revolting. Of course there was her aunt, her back reflected in the mirror, as well as the many boxes scattered around the room, but what really caught her attention was her own reflection.

It could have been a pretty picture, she supposed. Her aunt's golden blond hair mixed with her short, strawberry blond locks, and she had been told that her pale blue eyes were fairly pretty –granted, it was her aunt that had told her, so she wasn't really sure she should trust that opinion– but she stood there, no emotion showing and her hands hadn't even twitched from her sides to return the hug.

She looked like a porcelain marionette doll, and Pip hated that she did. Hated that she couldn't really tell her aunt how she felt about being abandoned, tossed to the side so that she and Charlie could start their own family without her. She hated, even more though, that this abandonment had started as soon as she had been tossed on her aunt's doorstep as a newborn. She had grown up being tossed around from sport to sport and friend to friend during the day because her aunt hadn't wanted the responsibility of raising her dead sister's daughter.

Pip's aunt finally pulled away, holding her at arm's length, the big grin still stretched across her lips. "Anyways, I really think you'll like how this'll turn out, Pip!"

"Oh yeah?" she asked, gently removing herself from her aunt's hands and going back to packing up. Now she was working on putting away her various trophies she had won from soccer, the sport she had stuck with the longest and, admittedly, liked the most. Other than dancing of course, but that didn't exactly count as a sport.

"Yes! See, with Charlie getting this promotion and with the money we're getting to move to Sweet Amoris, we'll have enough money to get you your own little apartment in the city, right close to the school!" Pip nodded slowly, glancing at her aunt.

"That sounds…nice," she told her aunt, not really sure if she was lying or not.

It was enough for her aunt, though, who immediately set off, describing the apartment building and the little shops around it, "Oh, you'll love it, Pip! It's such a small, cute little town, and people in small towns are always nice! And, even though you won't be living with us, we'll still be close, so you can come over and we can talk about girl stuff every once in a while, if you want to, and I hear that the school is just wonderful! You can be on their soccer team, I bet, like you are here!"

Pip tuned her hyperactive aunt out and continued packing, refraining from telling her aunt that the girls' soccer season was over and wondering if this new city was going to be as movie-picture esque as her aunt was making it out to be.

Probably not. Her aunt's fairytale view of the world never really did pan out to reflect the real thing. Pip supposed that was one of the big differences between them. Her aunt saw things through more of a rose tinted glass while hers was more of a dull gray. There was no sparkle in her life, it just was.

"Well, I'm sure you'll love your new apartment, but I should let you get back to packing," her aunt continued, drawing Pip form her thoughts. "Ah, I actually have to finish my own packing now that I think about it," she exclaimed, hopping up from the bed. "Remember that the moving van will be here first thing tomorrow morning Pip," she chided before leaving the room in a flurry.

That night lying on her mattress with a single pillow and blanket, surrounded by stacks of imposing boxes all shut and taped up, Pip found sleep to be rather elusive as her mind entertained thoughts of what her apartment would be like. She hadn't really thought about it until then, but since she'd be living by herself she could decorate it however she wanted. It was a strange thought since her aunt had always taken charge of things like that.

Turning onto her side, Pip stared out her window at the night sky. Sweet Amoris… maybe there she'd be able to change her life, even just a little…

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